Will we ever achieve Gender Equality?
To some Gender Equality may be seen as something that has already been done. That has come and past. In America at least in 1964 we passed the Civil Rights Act that stated that all persons be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services and facilities of places of public accommodation without discrimination or segregation on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, regardless of whether or not such discrimination is required by State laws, or ordinances.
Since then there have been progressively more acts and movements towards achieving gender equality. A gradual change in positive progress towards a more equitable and equal society for women. But also one that has gradually become harder to understand and see if you, yourself do not experience many of the issues that women often face.
You might ask yourself why it matters. Which it does. And that it’s not about some radical idea but instead about not forcing women and society to make the decisions that we often do. The problems in this space are complicated and also multifaceted. For our example we look at what a college educated middle class family would look like in parts of the world outside of the technology space.
For this audience I will make the first scenario as simple as I can for illustrative purposes. Imagine that you the reader is in a long term relationship and wanting to start a family. Depending on who you are and what income bracket you belong too, this scenario can change significantly. For our purposes you work at maybe a larger business or a startup. You belong to the top 25% of Americans who make more than $130,000 a year. You’re a working family, dual income. Statistically, you both have graduated from college and have been working now for at least 6 years.
The average length of maternity leave is 10 weeks, paid or unpaid. In your first year and even before, you become a liability to the company you work for. The vast majority of companies do not see longer term maternity leave as a viable option for their businesses let alone paternal care/leave. In America only 9% of companies offer paternity leave of 12 weeks or greater. While in the technology industry the average is around 12 to 18. [1]
In progressive countries such as those that follow the “Nordic” Model. The state/country often pays for the leave. Tax payers take on the burden of parents on the understanding that one day they will require the same services. It’s expensive and even in these countries, it often does not work very well. To run a similar program in the U.S. would cost on average around $363 Billion USD in the year of 2023, realistically a bit more.
A simple calculation of births minus the number of teen births and multiple births gives us 3,397,403 households. With a median income of $50,440 for Women in the Ages of 25 to 34 and $56,420 for Men. [5] This isn’t a great measurement to begin with, as about 40% of births are to unwed couples. [2] Though disproportionately impacting minority households. We’re not entirely sure in how many a father is not present. But what we do know is that births after the age of 34 taper off. [3] Though have been steadily increasing for simplification purposes it is not included.
This means that for a women to return back to work the “average” family will need to immediately start up a childcare program. The average cost of an infant care program starts at $12,000 dollars with it going up to as much as $29,000 in San Francisco. For our purposes we will go with an estimate of $15,000. [4][5]
Next we need to do an itemized accounting of the average assumed costs for this new family. For our purposes we will use a midwestern state of Wisconsin as an example as salaries in this range in the technology industry often occur here. Which often have a flat tax rate of 4.9-5%
Starting Household Income: $130,000
Including 401k Deposits. Assuming a “generous” 6% matching: $122,000 Pre-Tax
Post-Tax: $94,492
Now we assume that 30% of costs are going to housing. Either saving for a home or already living in one along with rent. The average age of a first time home buyer is 36.
That means there a left over $68,244.
From there 20% goes towards savings in a bank account and investments.
So now there’s half of that remaining. $48,746.
Of which the cost of infant care alone amounts to 30% of the remainder of income.
The Total Cost of Child Care or in this case Infant Care equates to 15.8% that doesn’t factor in quality of care which can differ greatly.
What’s this mean?
Across the board for American’s having a single child puts on a substantial burden to their way of living. Even at $130,000 a year it can mean a reduction in what you pay for. So far we haven’t even factored in the cost of everything else besides just the cost of Child Care alone for the first two years.
A standard model of budgeting often states a 50/30/20 Rule.
50% Goes towards Needs. 30% Towards Wants and 20% towards Savings.
These models often do not include the cost of a child. Others will fit it within the model of Needs, but realistically it no longer becomes a 50/30/20 Rule.
The reason why is because you can’t squeeze out your other needs. Some people may choose to save less or instead to put it towards a house, reducing the amount they spend on housing but in this income bracket that isn’t really necessary. So what’s most often cut are Wants.
Savings on things like travel and vacations are reallocated to ensure that they can pay for the Cost of Childcare. Realistically having a second child in this scenario is not possible. Yet on average 23% of households will go on to do exactly this. In 2010 that number was 33% or 1 in 3 households. And when this happens the household income drops as the women leaves the workforce.
Gap Years
To start off I’ll explain what a Gap Year is. A Gap Year is a year that a women voluntarily takes off in order to take care of a child. The number of gap years a women will take off can vary from 2 years to an average of 6.
Why does this matter? It’s often an important part of addressing the pay gap.
The years that a woman is out of work and how it impacts their projection in life. The average raise being one that is 3% annually. Compounded over 6 years that a woman will be out of the workforce. It’s not enough to explain the gap as a whole but it does address a large factor of it. There can be occupational differences but these changes are often not enough to address wage gap as a whole.
For individuals who takes these years off re-entering the workforce if it happens can be hard. Often, it mean starting over in their field and it’s present in the information we do have about them.
We know that the average age of having their first child has increased. Often around 30 for college degree holders. That means starting from when they get their first job to when they have their first child they work on average of 6-8 years. Wages over the past few decades have not risen for bachelor degree holders. [6] When women leave they make an average of $60,000-63,000. When they return they make less as they often have to start over. While a large percentage of women will not face this as they often receive the same raises as men. Due to the Gap. The median salary of women between the ages of 35-44 is only $57,000 in respect to men of $69,000.
These advantages often compound towards managerial positions and for addressing issues like the glass ceiling. Though, it’s important to note that these positions only account for a very small number of roles and do not impact the medians. Though, they are important. Other factors such as average starting salary are caused by the fields that women often enter into.
But it’s important to note that this is the most significant problem that women often face. It isn’t the only one, but it’s systemic role causes many of the issues we see today. Without addressing the gap you can’t deal with many of the real world problems that exist, increasing the number of representatives in board rooms can help but it’s not enough and cannot fix many of our issues. Our population is in decline without families to support it there is a real risk of serious issues occurring in our society.
Women’s rights is not a political issue but a social one. Empowering women and allowing them to function in society, to have control of their lives and being willing and able to choose to have children which often does not happen.
Universal Childcare
In Nordic Countries it often starts at the age of 1 and continues until the age of 5. It’s empowered many women in these countries to live out their lives. Often including full-time day care options and even when this choice is given.
A proposal from Wharton School of Business sets a Pre-K option for ages 3-5. It’s proposal would cost a total of $351 Billion over 10 years. [7]. In doing so would raise the average price of a childcare professional up to the level of a kindergarten teacher. But also greatly reduce the strain on American families. It could progressively change to a 1-5 model similar to ones seen in Nordic Countries.
Though it would likely face backlash to even begin starting and may never happen. It’s a core part of gender equality but alone it isn’t enough. Even with the existing model the most expensive part of doing so would be in paid paternal and maternal leave. Cost more yearly than the rest of the plan. But in doing so would reduce the amount of years a women would leave the workforce to at most one.
Putting this aspect on the company could work. Though it would be a drastic change from the current 9% of companies that offer any form greater than 12 weeks. Realistically the vast majority of companies will not be able to provide a paid leave of at least a year. Most companies do not have the liquid to pay this or are willing to pay it. While an unpaid version can exist for women it’s not really ideal as many of these women in Nordic countries decide to leave their jobs entirely in favor of part time roles. Which can cause many companies to be hesitant to offer any form of paid leave greater than a period of time.
How far are we from attaining Gender Equality?
Truthfully, we’re not really even close. The US as whole spends less than $500 on early childcare. The O.E.C.D average is $14,000. Even with this and the top spending economies. While the top nations come close. In Norway the Wage gap is 89 cents to 100. Which in comparison to the U.S.A is 77 cents to 100.
Though this number varies greatly as for Bachelor degree holders. It is 82 cents to 100. Which is closely similar to Norway though it changes drastically when you account for race. In Nordic countries women often do not want to work corporate jobs. Most favoring work life balance. [8] It’s clear even with the need for Universal Childcare systemic changes are required to achieve gender equality.
When given the choice a large majority of women will prefer to work part time. It isn’t surprising why it occurs. But it does ask how in our society we should work towards restructuring our everyday lives and work. Not because of women but because the modern workspace is not equitable towards a large portion of the population. It is often resilient to any form of change and many parts of it are unable to. Some roles have limited capacity others are heavily gender dominated. But of all the issues that exist it’s clear that the system is broken and we should think of ways of creating a newer more equitable one to replace it.
[1] https://justcapital.com/reports/only-9-percent-of-largest-us-companies-offer-at-least-12-weeks-of-paid-parental-leave-parity/
[2] https://www.childtrends.org/publications/dramatic-increase-in-percentage-of-births-outside-marriage-among-whites-hispanics-and-women-with-higher-education-levels
[3] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr72/nvsr72-01.pdf
[4] https://www.childrenscouncil.org/families/understanding-child-care/child-care-costs/
[5] https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/average-salary-by-age/
[6] https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d21/tables/dt21_502.30.asp
[7] https://budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu/issues/2022/6/2/total-cost-of-universal-pre-k
[8] https://norden.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:707663/FULLTEXT01.pdf